The concept of “network printing,” in which a set of digital printers or other devices are controlled using a network protocol, is well known. Heretofore, management of a network of printers, particularly at installation, has been a labor-intensive process. In order to set up a plurality of printers and make the printers accessible to a plurality of computers, a server on the network has to be configured, and this configuration process typically involves having a systems administrator, that is a person with the particular responsibility of maintaining the network, identify printers on the network, and configure ports and drivers in order to access each of these printers. It would be preferable to provide a system in which a user could automatically survey a network for any printers which happen to be installed thereon at a particular time, and automatically add ports and drivers to the network to serve the discovered printers, all in a single automatic operation.
The present invention is directed toward a method for facilitating such an automatic installation system in the Microsoft Windows 2000 environment, using Microsoft-provided APIs.